State and corporate intervention in the writing of history is a growing authoritarian tendency in several European countries. It is often presented with the best of intentions. To stop genocide, racism, antidemocratic extremism and intolerance by acknowledging when this have happened in the past to avoid that it will happen again.
It is of course good that crimes against humanity and other oppression is recognized regardless of who and why they were committed. But history is not only facts, it is also to place case studies in a context. This context can be the world and the planet we live on as biological beings, religious communities across state borders, gender, class, nation states, local communities, young, old and coming generations or such a thing as indebted countries and those with claims, the European Union or Africa. It can also be different theoretical traditions for what is considered to be good scientific criteria regardless of who writes the history with two exceptions. Since the revolutions in the 18th century it has been regarded as biased and thus less trustworthy if the ruler, owners of a lot of capital or the state itself writes its own history. The ideal has been the open discussion among equals as the best way to write history.
This has drastically changed in many parts of Europe during the last decade. Direct state and corporate intervention combined with more of state intervention in previous more self governed universities and demands that research contributes to economic growth within the present world order may drastically change the way history is written and used.
Sweden has in several aspects been a testing ground since late 1990s for establishing these models for more authoritarian history, both state, NGO and corporate initiatives. When these models now are developed on EU and All-European scale it may be of interest to look at the Swedish experience to see what we might expect in the future in Europe.
There are at least five broader initiatives for writing European history, three with considerable support and two minor more independent. The three with considerable support is the EU history project, The Prague Decalaration and World Without Nazism. The three much smaller initiatives is the 70 years declaration, a working group supported by Transform! by left wing historians and The Prague Spring 2 Network against Right wing extremism and populism (PS2).
PS2 is a network set up by alternative globalization, solidarity, antiracist and environmental movements mostly from Central and Eastern Europe as part or one of the outcomes of the European Social Forum process. This report Authoritarian history – the Swedish Connection is written as a contribution by PS2 in the all European debate on history.
Facts to be included on: EU history, Prague Declaration, WWN, Transform PS2
Sweden
1997
Social democratic prime minister Göran Persson takes the initiative to the information campaign ”Living History” spreading the bok Om detta må ni berätta (in English Tell ye your children, http://www.levandehistoria.se/material/tell-ye-your-children) in million copies. The cause was a report stating insufficient knowledge about the holocaust among youth in Sweden.
1998
On Swedish initiative what today is The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) was established. It was called the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research (ITF) until January 2013 as an inter-governmental organization established in 1998. The stated aims of the IHRA are to mobilize and coordinate political and social leaders‘ support for Holocaust education, remembrance, and research at national and international levels. In 2007, the IHRA expanded its thematic mandate to include the genocide of the Roma and other topics, such as genocide prevention and combating anti-Semitism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Holocaust_Remembrance_Alliance
10 million Swedish crowns, ca 1 million Euro is given to organizations that separates campaigning against racism in private life from campaigning against state racism. For the first time the Swedish popular movement tradition to combine to live as you preach in civil society and at the same time work for political change is challenged in a large scale. This splits the anti racist movement. Those like Anti fascist Action and many others refuses to take part in a campaign that only address one part of the issue. The leader of the campaign against racism in daily life becomes Mona Salin, a leading social democratic politician who later becomes prime minister. The limiting criteria for receiving EU money is the direct cause of this conflict.
1999
The history teachers union commission Krsitian Gerner, Klas Göran Karlsson and Kim Salomon, three researchers at the Lund university to write a leaflet on the similarities between Nazi and communist crimes against humanity excluding crimes against humanity committed by other types of regimes.
2000
An international conference is held in Stockholm to promote the rememberance of the Holocaust, the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust. It was attended by 23 Heads of State or Prime Ministers, and 14 deputy Prime Ministers or Ministers from 46 governments. This becomes a diplomatic success for Sweden with the participation from so many countries in a period were Holocaust mueums and education were on the rise motivated by both political changes and the fact that less and less living witnesses were alive. The result of the conference was the principles laid out by the Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust which became the mandate for IHRA.
2003
The educational campaign on the Holocaust is turned into a government agency called Forum för levande historia, Forum for Living History. In the last minute left party is criticizing the agency while that at first had supported the educational campaign which had the same content. The mandate to critisize a limited range of crimes against humanity not including colonialism but including communism or communist regimes is seen as an argument against setting up a governmental agency.
2005
The governmental agency together with a regional museum and the Lund university makes an exhibition about the Swedish extradition of some 150 Baltic and 2 500 German soldiers to the Soviet Union 1946. The extradiction of the Baltic soldiers was criticized at the time and in the 1990s the government apologized for the decision in 1946. The exhibition included mainly information about the Baltic SS soldiers but also short about the Baltic civilian refugees. Claims were made that recent research could not found any participation of Baltic SS soldiers in the Holocaust with one exception under German leadership. This was criticized as the Baltic participation in the holocaust is widely known as a well established fact. The exhibition about the extradition of members from the Baltic SS legions, Lithuanian Police units and German army that were organizations that started the holocaust were surrounded by large pictures of Holocaust victims as if the victims of the extradition was of a similar character as the victims of the Nazi genocide. The scientific advisor to the exhibition was Kristian Gerner who served as chairman of the Swedish Committee against Antisemtisim 2002-2003. Two out of three maps were falsified to exclude Finnish occupation of Eastern Carelia in 1942 were half of the Russian civil population were put into concentration camps and given less food than the Finnish speaking population in the occupied zone resulting in mass death. Also Soviet occupation of Northern Norway and Eastern Austria was excluded to present an image of the Soviet Union as constantly expansionist never able to give back conquered land and democratic countries never attacking and occupying parts of Soviet Union. This government agency exhibition was moved to Latvia and Estonia legitimating a way of illustrating and writing about WWII which was popular in the Baltic states and today is common among several museums to commemorate the so called double genocide by down playing domestic participation in the Holocaust and see Stalin and Hitler as equally the cause of terror and WWII. The criticism causes some unsubstantial changes in the exhibition and debate in national media. In 2010 Historisk Tidskrift, the most prestigious academic history magazine brings up the criticism against the falsification of one of the maps in the exhibition.
2006
The Swedish moderate politician Göran Lindbland initiates resolution 1481/2006 of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE). Here the Council of Europe „strongly condemns crimes of totalitarian communist regimes“. The full draft recommendation by rapporteur Göran Lindblad was issued with great majority by the Political Affairs committee. However, it did not receive the necessary two-thirds majority of the votes cast in the Parliamentary Assembly. The group of communist parties strongly opposed the resolution. The resolution was supported by the EPP/CD, ED, liberal groups and some social democrats, especially from countries like Hungary, the Czech Republic or the Baltic countries.
The newly elected right-centre government with the moderate party as most influential gives a new mandate to the Swedish government agency Forum for Living History. Now the crimes of communism shall be more strongly emphasized by the agency. The agency reformulates the mandate making it a concern for informing about crimes against humanity committed by three communist regimes. Soviet Union, China and Cambodia. All the regimes are linked to genocide. Soviet Union by quoting Robert Conquest on the terror and mass starvation in Ukraine 1932-33, China and Cambodia as more clear examples. The genocides and terror are partly explained by what is called communist learning processes starting with Karl Marx comment after the terror against the communards after the Paris Commune in 1871 that more terror was needed to be able to make the demands by the commune a reality. This is seen as inspiring the setting up of the first mass terror concentration camps by Lenin in the autumn of 1918 followed by genocides and other crimes committed by communist regimes. That communist Vietnam invaded Cambodia and put an end to the genocide is excluded from the the presentation by the agency. The material with this content is supposed to be used by teachers in the schools. Politicians criticize the decision by the agency to use the term crimes committed by communist regimes instead of crimes committed by communism as they see no reasons for not equating Communism with Nazism.
2007
European Public Hearing on Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes was held during the Slovenian Eu presidency. There were four sessions at the Hearing: How to improve knowledge about totalitarian crimes? How to promote public awareness about totalitarian crimes? What lessons can be drawn from successful experiences? How to achieve reconciliation? The hearing became one of the sources for the Prague Declaration.
2008
The Institute for Information on the Crimes of Communism (IICC) (Swedish: Upplysning om kommunismen, UOK) was founded. with the stated purpose of „spreading essential information on the crimes of communism and to promote vigilance against all totalitarian ideologies and antidemocratic movements“. This Institute is funded by the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise. The information on communism is linked to the promotion of market economy. The threat from communism today is presented as ”new communism”, well organized groups working closely to organize synchronized messages, demonstrations and direct actions. They are invited to discussion forums with trade unions and get substantial support from state subsidies. New communist organizations are according to the web site produced by the institute the Syndicalist Youth league (and anarcho syndicalist youth organization), The Street parliament, Reclaim the City, Global Intifada, Direct Action och Globalization from below, The only organization mentioned with some links to the kind of communism criticized in the material from the Institute is the Revolutionary Communist Youth. All others belong to what is called global justice movement or alter globalization movement and libertarian radical left and the traditions that has been the first to oppose authoritarian communism and the first killed by such regimes.
466 Swedish history academicians from different political backgrounds signs an appeal against governmental campaigns turning history into an ideological battle ground. The governmental agency information campaign on the crimes of communist regimes is taken as an example.
The Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism was signed calling for „Europe-wide condemnation of, and education about, the crimes of communism.“ Central to the declaration is the call for an „all-European understanding that both the Nazi and Communist totalitarian regimes […] should be considered to be the main disasters, which blighted the 20th century.“ The declaration or its proposals have received support from the European Parliament, notably in its 2009 resolution on European conscience and totalitarianism, from other bodies of the European Union, from the governments of multiple European countries affected by communist totalitarian rule and Soviet occupation, and from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
The result is a number of activities that sometimes are called the Prague process. The most important follow up has been that the The European Parliament proclaimed the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism on 23 September 2008 with the support of 409 MEPs from all political factions.
2009
European parliament called for the implementation of the the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism by the member states in a resolution on European conscience and totalitarianism (adopted 533–44 with 33 abstentions), which also called for the establishment of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience. Co-sponsored by the European People’s Party, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, The Greens–European Free Alliance, and the Union for Europe of the Nations, the resolution called for the recognition of „Communism, Nazism and fascism as a shared legacy“ and „an honest and thorough debate on all the totalitarian crimes of the past century,“ reconfirmed „its united stand against all totalitarian rule from whatever ideological background,“ and condemned „strongly and unequivocally all crimes against humanity and the massive human rights violations committed by all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes.“
2010
The Reconciliation of European Histories Group is established as an informal all-party group in the European Parliament involved in promoting the Prague Process in all of Europe, aimed at high ligthen the totalitarian past in many countries of Europe. The group is chaired by former European Commissioner Sandra Kalniete and comprises members of the European People’s Party, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, The Greens–European Free Alliance, the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, Europe of Freedom and Democracy, and the European Conservatives and Reformists. As of 2011, the group had 40 members, including Sandra Kalniete, Hans-Gert Pöttering (Chairman of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and former President of the European Parliament), László Tőkés (Vice President of the European Parliament), Heidi Hautala (former Chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights), and Gunnar Hökmark (Chairman of the European Friends of Israel). The group has co-hosted a number of public hearings and other meetings in the European Parliament on totalitarianism and communist crimes in Eastern and Central Europe. The Reconciliation of European Histories Group also cooperates closely with the Working Group on the Platform of European Memory and Conscience.
2011
In 2001 the strongest institutional organization in the follow up on the Prague declaration is formed under the chairmanship of the Swedish moderate politician Göran Lindblad. It is called The Platform of European Memory and Conscience equivalent to IHRA that focus upon Holocaust. It is an educational project of the European Union bringing together government institutions and organisations from EU countries active in research, documentation, awareness raising and education about the crimes of totalitarian regimes.
The Platform was founded in Prague on the occasion of the summit of Prime Ministers of the Visegrád Group on 14 October 2011. The signing ceremony took place in the Lichtenstein Palace under the auspices of Czech Prime Minister Petr Nečas, Polish Prime Minister and President of the European Council Donald Tusk, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Its goal is described as helping „prevent intolerance, extremism, anti-democratic movements and the recurrence of any totalitarian rule in the future.“ The project was originally proposed by the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes and the Government of the Czech Republic, and the 2008 Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism; on 2 April 2009, the European Parliament passed a resolution in favour of the initiative, and in June 2009, the Council of the European Union welcomed the initiative. The Platform of European Memory and Conscience was founded as an initiative of the Polish EU presidency in 2011, after the project had been promoted by the Czech EU presidency already in 2009 and by the Hungarian EU presidency in 2011. The secretariat of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience is hosted by the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, and the initial activities of the Platform are funded with a grant from the International Visegrád Fund. The founding institutions included government agencies of the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia, as well as several NGOs. The only state instutions in the West are Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial, Stiftung Sächsische Gedenkstätten and the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Archives. Some German NGOs also partcipate and the Dutch Stichting Geschiedenis Totalitaire Regimes en hun Slachtoffers.
The most prominent Western NGO is the founding member The Institute for Information on the Crimes of Communism. The board of directors consists of Camilla Andersson (chair), Anders Hjemdahl, Professor Kristian Gerner, Gunnar Hökmark, moderate MEP, Walburga Habsburg Douglas moderate politician and vice president of the Pan European Union as well as Chair of the Swedish Parliamentary delegation to the OSCE since 2006. In cooperation with the government of Sweden, the organisation has carried out remembrance ceremonies on the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, Minister of Education Jan Björklund and EU Ministers Cecilia Malmström and Birgitta Ohlsson have taken part in events hosted by the institute, especially the the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism.